Chapter 54: The Disaster of Holding a Jewel

From the high-priced aluminum ingot offer, Zheng Weishi had his own judgment. He was beginning to believe that Li Xian's batch of aluminum ingots had a great chance of being profitable. However, he didn't believe in Li Xian's talk of a changing world.

Having worked within the system for his entire life, Zheng Weishi had witnessed almost all major national events from the founding of the country to the present.

Economically speaking, the goals and models of the national economic system had changed four or five times, with new targets proposed almost every decade. But in his view, no matter how the system changed, the essence of the Chinese economy remained unchanged. It was always the same old wine in a new bottle.

Therefore, Zheng Weishi scoffed at Li Xian's "changing world theory": "Oh, come on. From the planned economy at the founding of the country, to the later combination of planned and market economies, and now to the socialist commodity economy with a mix of planned and market elements, how many times has it been debated loudly? But has the essence ever changed? Just focus on trading your aluminum ingots and stop making alarmist claims. I'll tell you straight, I think the 70,000 yuan price from Sun's son isn't low. Since policy matters are unpredictable, it's better to be safe and make some money now."

Saying this, he snatched the large tea cup from Li Xian's hands.

As one ages and has experienced a lifetime of upheavals, even the most open-minded individuals can be resistant to change.

Seeing Zheng Weishi's unexplained anger, Li Xian shrugged helplessly.

He didn't expect the old man to believe him; time would prove everything.

Looking up at the sky, now gathering thick clouds, and at the insects darting around in search of refuge from the impending rain, Li Xian's thoughts wandered.

The 14th National Congress was only a few days away, wasn't it?

...

While Li Xian was lost in thought about the approaching storm and the potential wealth from his aluminum ingots, Sun Dazhi was also planning to profit from them.

A month ago, he had received a visit from a town enterprise boss from the south. The visitor explained that town enterprises in areas like Huaxi were facing shortages of raw materials such as aluminum, steel, copper, and iron. They wanted to privately purchase some from Ice City to alleviate the shortage.

Despite the poor performance of many industrial enterprises in Ice City in recent years due to triangular debts and other issues, the demand for raw materials remained high. Even though Sun Dazhi worked in the Industrial Bureau and was supposedly in charge, he had little access to these materials.

Although Longjiang Province had refineries and various mines, in this planned economy era, production matched demand. To obtain raw materials, one had to work with local enterprises.

Sun Dazhi originally didn't want to deal with such troublesome matters, but at a drinking party, the Liu boss promised him a 20% commission on the market price of each ton of raw materials, with no limit on the quantity.

This profit was irresistible to Sun Dazhi.

Over the past month, he had managed to gather over a hundred tons of raw materials, which he sent to the Liu boss. In this mere handover business, he earned over 40,000 yuan.

Just before returning on October 1st, he received a call from Liu saying that there was a pressing need for aluminum. The market price for ordinary aluminum was over 2,700 yuan per ton, but Liu offered 3,500 yuan. For the highest purity standard aluminum, Liu offered a sky-high price of 4,000 yuan per ton!

Thus, when Sun Dazhi learned that there were over twenty tons of standard aluminum ingots in the retirement home's storage, he was thrilled, seeing it as a stack of thick banknotes. Selling these would yield over 20,000 yuan!

He immediately contacted the owner of the aluminum ingots.

Assuming that the aluminum ingots were stored in the retirement home and that Li Xian was a cadre's child, Sun Dazhi offered half the profit. Working in the provincial capital Ice City, he felt a sense of superiority and believed that Li Xian would surely accept the offer.

However, he didn't expect Li Xian to refuse!

This displeased Sun Dazhi greatly.

After failing to purchase, he learned that Li Xian was just a lineman from a forestry vocational school who rented a room in the retirement home for his renovation business. Sun Dazhi was even more annoyed and regretted not realizing earlier that this guy had no background. Seven thousand yuan was a ridiculous offer!

He thought he could easily find some connections in the forestry bureau to get the aluminum ingots and pay a bit of cost. As for the claim that Li Xian had a good relationship with Zheng Weishi?

It wasn't a close relationship. Sun Dazhi didn't believe that Zheng Weishi, a retired section chief, would go out of his way to help!

Determined to secure the aluminum ingots, Sun Dazhi quickly put on his coat and left the retirement home's guesthouse.

Seeing that it was about to rain, he muttered to himself and noticed a young man squatting in the corner of the courtyard. Seeing that the young man didn't seem like a family member of a cadre, Sun Dazhi approached him.

"Hey, do you have an umbrella?"

Li Xian was gazing up at the sky when a rather rude voice broke his thoughts. Annoyed, he pointed to the activity room without saying much.

Sun Dazhi cast an unhappy glance at him, fetched an umbrella from the activity room, and left the courtyard.

...

Having not stayed in the guesthouse for several days, the bedding had become a bit damp. Coupled with the heavy rain that had fallen all night, Li Xian slept poorly.

The next morning, he was awoken by the noisy commotion downstairs.

Groggily getting up, he looked out the window and saw a large group of people with "Fire Prevention Patrol" armbands moving aluminum ingots from the storage rooms to trucks outside.

His sleepiness vanished instantly!

"Hey! What are you doing? Those are my aluminum ingots!"

Without time to change clothes, he ran out in shorts and slippers.

Before he reached the door, he collided with Director Lao Liu, who was rushing in.

Director Lao Liu sat on the ground with an "Ouch," and seeing Li Xian, he quickly said, "You need to see this. The fire prevention patrol is seizing your aluminum ingots! I can't stop them!"

Li Xian was alarmed. "Where are Mr. Zheng and Mr. Wu?"

"They went fishing early this morning!" Director Lao Liu replied, holding his waist.

Cursing his bad luck, Li Xian helped him up and hurried to the storage rooms.

The storage room's doors were already open, and a group of enforcement officers was moving the aluminum ingots like ants to the trucks outside the courtyard.

"Stop! Put them down!"

He grabbed an officer who was carrying an ingot, but was pushed aside and stopped.

Nearby, two people were chatting and smoking.

One of them, a chubby man in a green polyester uniform, came over with a smile when he saw someone blocking their way. "Comrade, we're currently in the fire prevention period. As per the bureau's requirements, we're conducting fire hazard inspections of various units. Please don't obstruct our work."

"My aluminum ingots are just here, how does it affect your inspection?" Seeing the officer's attitude was not too bad, Li Xian quickly explained, "You're inspecting for fire hazards, but my aluminum ingots are not flammable or explosive materials, are they?"

"This aluminum ingot is yours?" The chubby man scrutinized Li Xian and then looked back at the people he had been chatting with, smiling even more amiably. "Comrade, we can't talk like this. According to regulations, each unit's storage room must have sufficient fire extinguishers and fire buckets, but the retirement home doesn't meet the requirements. So, your items are causing a problem."

"Then I'll move them now!" Hearing this, Li Xian panicked; he couldn't let the ingots leave his sight.

"Tsk… We're about to set up the equipment, no time to wait for you. According to the regulations, we'll have to confiscate these items for now. You can go to our office later to handle the paperwork and reclaim them. Okay?"

After finishing, the chubby man waved his hand and instructed his subordinates, "Hurry up, we have a lot to do today!"

Blocked and watching the ingots being moved to the truck, Li Xian felt this was far from a routine fire hazard inspection!

In a state of panic, he broke free from the officer holding him and threw himself in front of the storage room door.

"I'll be damned if anyone touches my aluminum ingots! They'll have to deal with me first!"

Holding onto the door frame tightly, Li Xian, like a bull protecting its calf, glared at the now cold-faced chubby man and shouted.